Far-right White House deputy chief of staff for policy, Stephen Miller, is increasingly being compelled to recuse himself from major political issues — due to the long list of side projects his wife, Katie Miller, has been involved in.
According to The Atlantic, one of the key issues has been the planned Paramount-Skydance merger with Warner Bros. Discovery, a controversial deal that could put CNN under the ownership of the same company whose new CBS News leadership has been viewed by some insiders as more sympathetic to Trump.
"For months ... she had been talking informally with Paramount brass about selling her media property, The Katie Miller Podcast, to the news-media giant as it expands its offerings, according to two people familiar with the plans who spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to discuss the nonpublic information," said the report, referring to an infamous right-wing podcast that has received widely negative reviews. "Those talks ... have yet to result in a finalized sale, the people familiar with the matter said."
Per the report, Stephen also recused himself from any issues related to artificial intelligence and space exploration, because Katie, in her capacity advising tech billionaire Elon Musk, "had maintained a part-time consulting contract with xAI, the owner of the Grok chatbot and the social-media company X" — a conflict of interest that now extends to SpaceX as that company recently purchased xAI.
Stephen has not recused himself from sponsors of Katie's podcast, as ethics rules at the White House do not require that. Nonetheless, "a White House official told us ... that Stephen nonetheless makes a point not to interact with the sponsors of his wife’s podcast, including companies and trade groups that have been actively seeking favor from Trump and his team," the report continued.
All of this comes following reports about Katie's childhood and upbringing that paint a stark picture of her political ambition and machinations against rivals dating back to her college years.